I'm looking for tips from agility any agility experts out there.

I recently started competing with my dog in agility (we've done two trials so far), and I'm looking to improve. Our trainer was being really helpful with helping us work through our issues, but it seems like she doesn't have much more advice to offer. So, that's where you come in.

We've done a lot of training (over a year), and we have done two trials, so I do know more or less what I'm doing, so I'm only looking for advice from experienced handlers.

So, here's what our issues are:

My dog (who is a Chow/Husky mix) has a mind of his own. He doesn't really live to please me, but he loves doing agility. He likes to write his own course, adding in extras of the obstacles he likes the best (A-frame and tunnels are his favorites). I know how to direct him and call him away and where to go, but he chooses to ignore me at times. He'll usually do pretty well with listening..until about halfway through, when he's like "ooh, a-frame over there! I wanna do that!" pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com

He also gets upset if I correct him, and will decide he's fed up and he's leaving....but I've pretty much figured out how to fix this during a trial. For example, if he skips a weave pole, I just start acting crazy excited like he's done, and he'll run to me, and then he'll let me send him back through. If I correct him with negative sound, he gets upset and will refuse to do it again. So, I can fix this in a trial, but it's not very good for training, because he doesn't really understand he's doing it wrong.

He also gets distracted easily....mostly by the judge or pole setters. He likes to run to them and bark, and then he's lost focus and it's hard to get him back on course. We've worked on this by using fake judges in practice, and he has gotten a little better, but there's still room for improvement. I have also learned that I need to be really loud and constantly making noise, to keep his focus on me.

After saying all these negative things about my dog, I would like to say he has a lot of potential in agility. He loves doing it. He loves to run, and he's fast and agile. He never knocks a bar or misses a contact zone. He would be great if we can just work through our issues, so I hope you can give me tips to help. Thanks!